At restaurants or other locations, a beverage is often delivered from a dispenser in the form of a blend of syrup and water. Depending on the beverage, the water may or may not be carbonated. An advantage of dispensing beverage in this form is that the syrup containers and water supply occupy significantly less space than is otherwise required to store the same volume of beverage in individual containers. Providing beverage from a dispenser likewise eliminates the need for the establishment to have to deal with the waste formed by the empty individual containers.
A typical beverage dispenser includes a number of dispensing heads. Each head is connected to a different source of syrup, sometimes called concentrate, and a water source. Often, especially at a self-serve station, the beverage dispenser includes an ice dispenser. The ice dispenser includes a chute adjacent the beverage dispensing heads. This allows a customer, at a single location, to both fill a container with ice and a beverage of choice. An advantage of this arrangement is that it allows the customer, without staff involvement, to fill the cup with the specific proportions of ice and beverage preferred by the customer. This frees the staff from having to fill beverage containers so they can be available for other duties. Moreover, the customer enjoys complete control over the dispensing of his beverage.
While known beverage and ice dispensers work reasonably well, there are a few disadvantages associated with their use. In particular, many known beverage dispensers are difficult to maintain. For example, a beverage dispenser typically includes a drip pan. This pan is located below the ice chute and dispensing heads. The pan functions as a collection device for liquids and ice that do not make it into a container. Ice often collects in the pan. The ice lowers the temperature of the pan. Consequently, water vapor condenses around the outer surface of the pan. This condensate forms an unattractive puddle adjacent the dispenser. Restaurant personnel must therefore take time to clean the accumulated water.
As mentioned above, a beverage, in addition to being formed from syrup, is formed from either carbonated or non-carbonated water. Carbonated and non-carbonated beverages are typically dispensed from the different heads of a single beverage dispenser. To accommodate for changes in customer preferences, it is sometimes necessary to reconfigure a beverage dispenser to change the beverage delivered from a specific dispensing head. Sometimes this involves changing the water supplied to the dispensing head from carbonated to non-carbonated or vice versa. Some beverage dispensers are so constructed that, once manufactured, this change is difficult, if not impossible, to make. When it is possible to make this change, often a lengthy amount of time is required to replumb the connections to an individual dispensing head.
A cold plate is a component integral with many beverage dispensers. A cold plate consists of a thermally conductive plate that is positioned adjacent the bin used internal to the dispenser that holds ice prior to discharge. The cold plate is provided with tubing through which the syrups and water flow prior to discharge through the dispensing head. As these liquids flow through the cold plate, their thermal energy is transferred to the ice in the ice bin. Thus, these beverage-forming liquids are cooled prior to discharge. Due to the relatively cold temperature of the cold plate, condensate has a tendency to form inside the dispenser around the cold plate. This condensate collects as water pools inside the dispenser. Again, the formation of these pools requires that the staff tending to the dispenser take the time to clean them.
Still other problems are associated with the motor associated with the ice bin. This motor drives an agitator in the bin that prevents the individual ice cubes from forming a large block. Due to the loads to which this motor is exposed, it often requires maintenance. In known dispensers, the motor is attached in such a way that its removal is a difficult task that may take an extensive amount of time to perform.